Russians on the Kennebec
This paperback, Russian Voices on the Kennebec by Robert S. Jasper, was difficult to find. Perhaps in Maine interlibrary loan will take care of it, dear reader. Pacific Grove, CA is closer to my Menlo Park home, but this 2009 publication from Park Place was…you do not want to know.
Next summer I do want to drive to nearby Dresden and see the final resting place of the founder of our country’s largest Russian community, Baron Vladimir Kuhn von Poushental, who died in Miami in 1978 at age 84.
This unlikely history of Maine’s unlikely colony was brought to my attention by our editor Esther Perne. We were enjoying turkey soup and cranberry sauce on a cool rainy August summer afternoon at Moose Cottage, Loon Ridge Cabins located on the busy road to Augusta.
Russians settled near Belgrade? Who knew? I certainly was hungering to peruse this unique and surprising history ASAP. Took awhile but the search proved satisfying.
The cover, how unusual and beautiful, with no words needed, for the binding clearly prints Jasper Russian Voices On The Kennebec, all caps! Russian Orthodox immigrants settled in the 1950s.
Like most immigrants to the US, they were a variety of peoples from many countries: vets of the White Russian Army who fought the Bolsheviks, Ukrainians, Belorussians, etc.
“Maine’s first Russian settlement soon became the largest Russian-speaking community in the US.” They settled and thrived in Maine’s Kennebec Valley. Some readers may remember the 1950s, I do. But my Maine summer visits did not bring me to this unique part of our large beautiful state.
Historian Jasper graduated from Columbia’s Russian Institute and he wrote in World Politics about Soviet foreign policy. It wasn’t until the author moved to Maine that he discovered this Russian-speaking community. Years of research and many interviews brought about this original history, similar to his other history entitled South Africa’s Other Whites: Voices for Change, St.Martin Press, 1993. Shirley Kew Jester, his wife, was instrumental in the writing of that book.
Von Poushental spent half the year in Miami and half in Maine, returning to Chateau Blue Heron, sculling and duck hunting on the Kennebec. Russian settlers were appreciative of this man’s gift of land to them. Some of them bought a farm from von Poushental’s large tract.
Gov. Payne of Maine cooperated in the purchase of the land to give away to “White Russians, not Communists.” Leaders of this endeavor lived in Richmond. “There the survivors and families of those who had served the White Russian cause could live out their lives in peace among others who spoke their language and who shared their cultural background and Orthodox faith…”
Von Poushental loved to hunt and he had only a modest house in the woods near Pittston. Boothbay Harbor was where his wartime friend first introduced him to Maine.
Kiev opera singer Alexandra Sherbakoff, also a folk dancer, emblazes the dramatic black and white photo cover. Her life in Richmond is covered in chapter three where pages of photos offer insights.
Many interviews and memories of the Old World before finding refuge in Maine. Who knew these immigrants were so very close to our beautiful Belgrade Lakes? Sneak a peak at photos of Richmond and environs, all full of familiar landmarks. Heard any Russian recently?
Download Full Newspaper: High Res | Low Res (Details…)
<— Previous Article • Summaries • Next Article —>
©2025 by Summertime in the Belgrades. All rights reserved.